Past Journey
by Jedi Kira
Summary: A young girl searches for answers about her past while trying to deal with strange new events and exciting new friends....please R&R!
1. Default Chapter

"So do we have a deal?" Sharrak leaned across the grimy tabletop, leering suggestively at her. "Or can you think of some other way we could arrange your payment?"  
Kira looked at him, a tightening of the small muscles around her golden flecked eyes the only indication of her distaste. The cool weight of her new blaster was reassuring against her side. "We have a deal. No other arrangements are necessary. Do you have it with you?"  
"What do ya take me for? A swaggin' nerf herder? It's someplace close. Someplace safe. What say we take a little walk?"   
"Of course. Shall we?" She motioned him out of the dark booth, rising with a subtle signal. He smirked at her and got up, heading for the door. Swirling her cloak around her shoulders, she trailed along behind him. Against the far wall, a large shadow rose up to follow them out.  
  
They arrived unharried at their destination, which was fairly amazing considering the reputation for Nar Shadda. Quite distant from most galactic commercial centers, the planet known as the smugglers' moon is controlled by Hutts and various smuggling guilds and is now widely regarded as the center of smuggling operations in the known galaxy. Kira looked around them at the dilapidated buildings and wrinkled her nose at the offensive stench that seemed to emanate from the street. Sharrak tapped on the unadorned side of a dirty abandoned warehouse. A door opened along a formerly hidden seam, and he motioned for her to precede him into the dark. Her body tense, she entered.  
Kira heard him come in behind her and close the door. She vainly tried to adjust her eyes to the pitch black, but before she could a light came on in Sharrak's hands. "Come on, it's this way," he said, motioning with his glowrod. She followed him along a narrow corridor, searching for any sign of deceit in his furtive motions. As they came to an old office door, he turned to her. "It's in there. You sure you got the payment? My, uh, partner don't exactly take credit."  
"Of course I have it with me. What do you take me for?" She smiled sweetly at him.  
"Right," he muttered, "Come on."   
He ushered her into the room. The small space was all shadows and wavering light and without the aid of Sharrak's glowrod it was hard to tell what everything was. She heard the door click behind her and whirled at the sound. Sharrak was gone. She felt an icy shiver of terror as she turned back to survey the small room. It was lit only by a flickering glowlamp in the corner, the light casting large ominous shadows along the walls. Kira tried to slow her harsh breathing as she saw a stooped person standing in the center of the dingy office. She looked at the hunched figure standing seemingly cloaked in darkness. She shivered, despite the warehouse's warm temperature. She felt cold and strange looking at this small figure. Suddenly, it moved. "So. This is the young lady who so desires what I have to offer." It's voice felt like a cold hand running down her spine. It seemed to regard her with interest, which made the skin on the back of her neck crawl.  
"Do you have it?" She blurted out, then swallowed nervously.  
It chuckled miserably. "Yes. Do you have what I asked for?"  
"Yes." She reached into her cloak and hesitantly pulled out a small amulet, encrusted with small, brilliant jewels set in a strange bluish metal. The most striking part of the piece was its center stone, a large blood red jewel that seemed to emanate a strange sort of power. When the stooped figure saw it, it thrust out a knarled fist.   
"Here is what you desire. Make your use of it, young one, you will. Just remember: the power you seek is closer than you think." It snatched the amulet out of her trembling hand and held it's thin arm out further towards her. Her breath caught in her throat as she looked at what she had bought: a real lightsaber.  
Kira reached hesitantly for the pummel of the ancient weapon. Plucking it gently from the knarled fist, she grasped the cold metal of her new purchase, and backed slowly out of the room, her eyes glued to the hunched figure as it drew its hand back inside the folds of its robes with the amulet firmly in its grasp. She turned and all but fled down the narrow hallways, back to the hidden door. She wrenched it open and flew out into the night. As she faded into the darkness, a figure detached itself from the shadows along the building and followed in her wake.  
  
Sharrak watched the girl flee the building and felt a slight shiver of fear. He made his way back to where the creature was waiting, slowly opened the door of the office and went in. He regarded the lumpy figure in the center of the room. "I did what you asked, now I want my payment." The figure turned and the smuggler fidgeted under its gaze.   
"Do not fear, my dear Sharrak. You will receive your just rewards." Sharrak swallowed nervously. The figure seemed to grow as it took a step towards the now cowering man. "We all will."  
  
Kira slowed as she reached the lights of the middle class portion of the mainly human 'data' district of Nar Shadda, the location of her most recent home, a small but clean apartment located in a slightly dilapidated stone building. She paused before entering her building, sensing something behind her. She thought of her small holdout blaster concealed in her jacket. But as she whirled around, her hand reaching into her cloak, she saw only a large rodent scurry into the sewer drain. Her heart beating, she fled to the safety of her apartment.  
Kira pulled her dark cloak off of her shoulders and tossed it onto a small table by her door, as she glanced around her sparse apartment, making sure everything was in its place. Her apartment had few things in it of her own, most of the furniture belonging to the owners of the building. She wouldn't stay much longer now that she had what she came for. She tossed her blaster on to the closest seating as she walked towards it. She sat down on the long white nerf-skin couch and pulled her purchase out of a hidden pocket in the lining of her jacket. Examining it carefully, she felt a shiver of excitement ripple through her. "Finally," she whispered softly to herself as she traced the swirling lines of the lightsaber's etching with her fingertips. It really was a beautiful weapon, and at twenty-six centimeters long it had a milky white base, with strange, curving lines entwining around the grip, that flowed up towards the concave disc where the blade would extend. She held it away from her body and depressed the button on the grip of the 'saber, extending the blade. At about a meter in length, the blade was pure white light at the center with coursing amethyst shining at the edges. Kira gasped as the shining blade bathed her already glowing face in light, distorting the shadows on her wall. "Multiple crystals," she breathed.  
Kira knew that a lightsaber works by use of a power cell and multifaceted crystals or jewels that focus the energy from the power source and release it through the disc topping it, where it appears as a tight, colored beam of light and energy. A saber with a single jewel has a fixed amplitude and blade length. Those with multiple can alter their amplitude and change their blade's length usually by rotating an exterior control to vary the distance between jewels. The emitted beam arcs back from its positive charged energy continuous energy lens to a negatively charged high-energy flux aperture set in the disc atop the handle. The power amplitude determines the point at which the beam arcs back, setting the blade's length.  
The two distinct colors of the lightsaber's blade meant that there had to be at least two different jewels used. Kira switched the throbbing blade off and turned the pommel over in her hands. Towards the base, there was a small band of blood red stones encircling the weapon. She flipped it back on and turned the dial. The blade extended another twenty centimeters. Kira smiled. "It's perfect."  
Kira jumped at the slight noise at the door. Her heart leaped into her throat. She had been followed and she had disregarded to lock the door. Too late for kicking herself, she'd have to do it later, Kira thought to herself as she switched off the glowing blade, pocketed it, and threw herself across the couch towards her blaster, banging her shin on the small glass caf table. Scrabbling for the grip, she whirled towards the door as it burst open, revealing a large dark figure blocking the light from the hallway. Kira gasped in horror at the sight of the imposing figure. Time seemed to slow as Kira vainly struggled with her weapon. The figure raised a gloved hand and motioned at her weapon, which tore itself out of her grip and went sailing towards the ominous figure.   
  
Kira sighed. "Slobbering Hutts Val, you scared me! What have I told you about knocking first? I could have killed you!"  
Valtrioc Deluman chuckled. "I don't find that at all likely. If I hadn't taken it from you, you would simply kept trying to fire at me with the trigger guard still on." Kira glanced at the blaster, held loosely in his grip. Her face flushed red as she furiously reached for her weapon, which Val obligingly surrendered. "Hey, don't take it out on me just because you won't let me show you how to use it."  
"I know how to use it, I just forgot because I was busy having a heart attack!" she threw at him, angrily, pocketing the blaster and rubbing her sore shin. Val's face sobered. "Come on Kira, you should have sensed me coming from a mile away. You haven't been practicing, have you?"  
"So what if I haven't? I'll never be as powerful as you, ya big show off, and why should I be? I've always got you following me to 'keep me out of trouble'. Well I don't need your help, and I don't need your dumb exercises! I'm getting things done my way." Kira stomped over towards the small kitchen unit and poured herself a tall drink of a bitter liquid that the manager had supplied to her when she moved in. Taking a large gulp, she suddenly leaned over the sink, coughing. Her throat working, she choked, "Now I remember why I don't drink." She leaned heavily on the side of the sink, placing her forehead on the cool surface of the wall. Does he want to me my mentor, my older brother, or something more? She quietly fumed to herself. The mixed signals were giving her a headache, but so did most things lately.  
Val sighed. "This is no way for you to be acting. You get so angry at the smallest things; it makes me worry about you, Kira. You're at a very vulnerable age right now, an age where you can easily be lead down the wrong path. Beware the quick and easy path. It may seem good to you right now, but you have no idea the price you will pay. And forgoing that, you are going to have a heart attack one of these days if you can't learn to calm down."   
Kira grimaced as she tried to wash the bitter taste out of her mouth with a drink of water from the tap. Taking slow, even breaths, she calmed herself down before replying. "I know. I'm sorry for snapping at you, I've been on edge all night."  
"That reminds me, did you find what you went for?"  
She smiled, "I have it right here." She removed the lightsaber from her pocket and handed the shining handle to her friend. He reached out and took the ancient weapon from her gingerly, admiring the etching and jewels inlaid along its grip.  
"This is truly beautiful. And you say you got it from a rare weapons dealer?" Kira squirmed and looked away, but Valtrioc didn't seem to notice as he examined the weapon.  
"Yeah, a smuggler contact of mine set it up. The funny thing is, Sharrak came to me without my even having to contact him. I guess word must have gotten out about my wanting one." Kira shrugged. "I don't really care how I got it, just having it makes everything worthwhile." Despite her words, Kira thought with a slight pang about what she had to trade to get her lightsaber. Raised by two loving foster parents on a rather successful farm on Corellia, just outside the mid-size town of Bela Vistal, the amulet had been her only link to her real parents, it having been left with her at a small orphanage in Coronet. She still had not been able to find out anything about her real parents or the origin of the amulet. Kira regarded the recent exchange to be symbolic of her trading her old life on Corellia for a new one with her new friend. She had always wanted to find out about her strange powers and when she met a handsome and charming humanoid on Onderon while searching for her birth parents, she had jumped at the chance to befriend someone who could help her realize her true potential. Valtrioc had agreed to teach her what he knew of what he referred to as the Force in exchange for passage to the next star system. What started out as a business agreement slowly became a friendship. Kira glanced over at the tall humanoid. He looked almost perfectly human except for his imposing height, and even more prevalent, the slight ridges that ran back from the corners of his eyes to mingle with his head of jet-black hair, which he now ran his fingers through. This action messed up his hair enough to make him look rakishly charming, Kira thought. He felt her gaze on him and looked up. She hurriedly tore her eyes off of him, blushing harder this time as the corners of his mouth lifted in a jesting smile. "Now we both have one, and you can finally teach me how to fight with it instead of just showing me different stances." She studiously ignored his gaze as he looked at her.  
"Of course, all in good time," he said with a laughing tone, amused by her discomfiture. "But now, it's late, and young Jedi need their sleep as well." He rose from the couch and handed the lightsaber back to her, butt first. She nodded, suddenly feeling the effects of her long day, and yawned. She stumbled towards her bedroom, the lightsaber dangling loosely from her hand. Valtrioc smiled and bid her goodnight, silently slipping out of the door, making sure to lock it on his way out. 


	2. Chapter two

Kira shaded her eyes against the glare of twin suns framed against the clear purple sky. Her pudgy hand did little to halt the blinding rays shining off the jewel-like sand crystals that crunched beneath her trudging feet. Clutching tightly the hand of a woman in her other fist, she vainly tried to look beyond the long line of ragged people walking towards the horizon. "Momma, when are we going to get there?"  
The woman looked down at her. "Soon, my little Jedi, soon."  
Her voice was warm and comforting, but as much as she squinted, Kira could not make out the woman's face. "Jedi, momma?"  
"A Jedi is a protector of the weak, my dear. You will protect us." Kira gasped as her child-like hand was ripped from the woman's warm grasp. The sands around her fell away, along with the hordes of refugees, to be replaced by a deep darkness. Kira groped about her in the dark, trying to find someone, not wanting to be alone. Her slender hand rubbed against something cold and metal. She squeezed a button along the side of the metal shaft, and a blinding white light shot from the handle. Standing in front of her, so close she could see the glare of the lightsaber in his eyes was Val.   
"Val!" She tossed down the lightsaber and launched herself at him, closing her arms around his neck. But when she did not feel his comforting presense, she leaned away and looked into his face. What she saw there made her jerk back and cover her mouth with her long, slender fingers. HIs eyes were like fire, and his face was a mask of rage. A familiar snap-hiss accompanied her backwards steps, and she gasped to see a red shaft of light extend from his hands.   
"You will not win, Jedi." His voice was like a cold wind that blew through her soul.  
"Val? It's me, Kira! Please!" She felt tears stinging her eyes. This wasn't Val. He didn't feel right. "Who are you? Tell me!" She yelled.  
He ignored her demand and raised his shimmering blade. Kira lunged for her discarded weapon, but fumbled with the button. She rolled away as the man swept his lightsaber through where she had been a moment before. He leaped into the air, dodging her first swipe that would have taken his legs off at the knees. As he came down, he spun and landed in a crouch, flinging his weapon into a gleaming spin that would have decapitated her, had she not ducked. Reaching out his hand for his returning blade, he ran towards her as she struggled to regain her balance. The floor seemed to shift under her feet and she lurched forward, into the dark man's waiting blade. Kira looked down to see the lightsaber's red blade emerge from her torso as he pulled it backwards.   
"Why Val?" She whispered, looking once more into his firey eyes. But instead of the fire she expected, she saw the dirty faces of millions upon millions of homeless wanderers as they walked on through the blazing desert. The kind woman's voice reached out to her as darkness closed around her vision. "You must protect us all."  
  
Kira grimaced as light from the opened window shone right into her eyes. "Sith, don't you know how wake someone up without blinding them?" she grumbled at the retreating droid's back. "Darn servo-droids," she complained to herself. She'd have to rewire it again. That was definitely the last time she took a droid for payment. Especially one who hadn't had a memory wipe in who knows how long. She began to detangle herself from the sheets wound around her legs as she rolled out of bed, when a flash of red light from the window made her freeze mid-roll and fall unceremoniusly to the floor. Instead of laughing at her clusminess like she usually would, she lay on the ground unable to move. "Was it a dream?" she wondered aloud. That must have been it, it was just her body's way of telling her that nerf steak and a nervous stomach didn't go well together. She succeeded in untwining herself and by the time she had stepped into the apartment's refresher, had already dismissed the disturbing dream for a simple nightmare.   
Stepping out of her now vacant apartment followed closely by the whiring droid, Kira pulled a loosely flowing cloak tighter over her form fitting jumpsuit. Val was supposed to meet her at a small tapcaf in an hour, and she still had some parts to pick up and drop off at the docking bay. Motioning for the droid to keep up, she increased her pace as they mingled with the stream of humans and aliens going about their business in the hazy morning sunlight.   
Having completed her errand and left the droid with her ship, Kira entered the small but noisy Sun's Spot tapcaf, scanning the usual crowd of workers on their lunch break. Spotting her friend, she hurried over to his corner booth and sat down. "You're late," he said accusingly. "not that I sould be surprised, but..."  
She sniffed, ignoring his playful jibe. "I'm hungry, I see you've already ordered." As she said this, a waiter droid came floating over. She pointed to two widely spaced lines on the holo menu floating above the table top. "I want this line to this line, and a small caff, got that?" The droid beeped an affirmative and sped off in the direction of the kitchen.  
Val sniggered. "You'd beat a kantana in an eating contest you know that? And after you won, you'd just eat him too, for good measure."  
"I didn't have time for breakfast," she explained as she snuck a nerf sausage off of his plate. "So, our passengers want to be out of here in five hours, hope that's not too soon for ya." Val poked at the offending hand with his eating utensil.   
"You have to eat mine too?" he complained, looking mock hurt at her, and then down at his black-clothed form, "I'm wasting away, hanging around you all the time."  
"Doubtful," she murmered to herself, as she looked at him, then suddenly away, trying to hide the unwelcome crimson staining her cheeks. "Now where's that food...ah!" she exclaimed as the droid swept up, depositing a tray with four diferent dishes on it. Valtrioc rolled his dark blue eyes at the ceiling, as if looking for an anwswer to his next question.  
"How can you eat so much and not end up looking like a Hutt?" He glanced back down at her and smothered a laugh as he took in her bulging cheeks. She glared at him and swallowed her large mouthful. Kira picked up a sausage off one of her plates and tossed it at his face. He caught it with his utensil, using a stabing motion to pluck it from the air before it could hit his forehead and popped it into his mouth. He grinned, "Thanks, but you'd better hurry if we're going to make that departure time. You've got paying customers waiting on you, ya know."  
Kira snorted around another mouthful of food. "How could I forget?"  
  
Kira stifled the strong urge to hit something sentinent, and popped another pain reducer into her mouth. Her business of transporting wealthy diplomats and families around the galaxy certainly paid well, but sometimes it seemed not well enough. Her ship, the Orion's Runner, was outfitted for the comfort of such passengers, but sometimes wasn't good enough for some more unusual species. The pair of Calamarian diplomats they were carrying today kept complaining that the passenger area wasn't damp enough. "Sith," she muttered to herself, "don't they know that's Alderaanian silk on those couches back there? I can't replace those, they're just about one of a kind now..." She manuvered herself further into the workings of the ship's climate control. The vaporizer she had rigged was already working at it's highest capacity, but if she could just tweak the output guidance here, and increase the input pressure.... "Did it!" she exclaimed as the vaporizer let out a loud whir to signify it's increase in power. She jumped as something grabbed against her leg, banging her head on the input tube, knocking it out of its proper place and sending a slight mist over her grease smeared face. She kicked out to about the location that whomever had her other leg in a grip would be.   
"Son of a Sith, Kira, that hurt." Kira secured the hose back in place and slid out from under her ship's inner workings to see Val rubbing the spot between his shoulder and neck. "A normal girl would have screamed."  
"And a normal guy would have been decapitated," she returned with a nasty grin. No doubt about it, he was definitely different from any human guy she had met. She regarded his mock complaining with some curiosity. A normal human male actually would be in pretty bad shape had he recieved as kick like that. She often wondered where Val came from, but he hadn't ever asked too many questions about her past so she returned the favor. If he wants me to know, he'll tell me, Kira thought to herself, turning back to her work.  
"So, almost ready to come relieve Captain Serious up there?" Kira sniggered. Val was refering to her pilot droid who, despite constant tinkering retained a very offical, almost military manner.  
"Just about. Could you hand me that Hydrospanner?" Kira reached out a hand, indicating a cluttered portion of deck plating that had about twenty different hydrospanners occupying it. "The heavy one"  
"They all look heavy to me," Val sighed, letting his eyes drift shut. "You want the one with the spot of green paint on the end." Kira scowled.  
"Get out of my mind, Jedi," she spit, grabbing the green-spotted tool from his waiting hand.  
"It's not like I have far to go to find it, you were practically yelling the thought at me," He looked at her with concern in his eyes. "Is your head still hurting? Do you want to lie down, I could take over for the Captain." Kira dismissed his concern with a wave of her hand and tried to dampen her feelings of pain.   
"I'll be fine, there's no way I'm letting you fly my ship, you'd just scratch the paint." She looked at him and the hard light in her eyes softened. "Really, I'm okay. You shouldn't worry about me so much, I'm not so fragile as you seem to think."  
Val grinned, "I know, I've seen you gulp down one too many double nerf burgers to think that." Kira swung the hydrospanner at his foot, clanking against the deck as he deftly moved out of the way. "These are new boots I hope you know..."  
  
Manuvering the Orion into its berthing, Kira thought about her friend and how little she knew about him. They had only been traveling together for a couple months and she wasn't even sure why he wanted to stay with her. Whenever they reached a new world, he would head off on his own for sometimes days at a time, telling her to comm him only if neccesary. What that meant, she couldn't begin to fathom. Then, they'd meet up somewhere and it would be like her had never left. He never said anything about where he'd been or what he'd been doing or who he's been doing it with. She sometimes wondered about it, but never thought to ask him. The partnership was fine with her, though. Some spacers thought her an easy target, a small statured girl with a ship of her own and only droids to keep her company. But it was never a problem for her, she had a finely tuned danger sense, which Val attributed to the Force, and was stronger than a normal human female. Even though she could hold her own in hand-to-hand combat as well as a space flight, it was good to have someone around, even if just to keep her company. She had to admit, she had been getting kind of lonely, carting around stuffy diplomats all the time with only the Captain and Petey (the rewired servo-droid) to keep her company. Kira smiled, "And he's not bad to look at either," she whispered to herself.   
"What's not bad to look at?" Kira jumped at the sound of his voice as Val leaned through the doorway. She turned around to face him with a scowl on her face.   
"Just admiring the light freighter docked beside us. Why do you always sneak up on me like that?"  
Val grinned. "I snuck up with all the grace of a herd of wampas. What did I tell you about your sphere of responsibility? You need to extend it to encompass all your surroundings, not just things directly in front of you."  
"Oh, spare me your Jedi lectures for today, I'm too tired for that," Kira stretched her arms over her head and bent backwards over the back of her low pilot's seat, cracking the tendons in her back. "Ow...shouldn't keep the passengers waiting..." Her voice trailed off as she got up from her seat and went back to help her passengers disembark. Val's eyes followed her out of the bridge, glinting in the low light of the glow panels.  
  
A dark figure stood framed against the black of space. Not a star was seen in the sky through the view panel, as the humanoid regarded this lack of somethingness. He thought it rather fitting as a place to meet. "Why?" he asked himself, chuckling freely. "Because, from 'nothing' came life, as it is. And now, in front of nothing shall be born the means to destroy that life." He was still contemplating his revelation when a slight sound from the direction of the turbolift announced the awaited arrival. The dorrs whooshed open to reveal a stooped figure that, despite the turbolift's bright glowpanels, seemed to call the darkness to him to wear as a cloak. The figure shuffled forward, meeting the long strides of the other in the middle of the walkway between the empty crew pits of the Super Star Destroyer. "My old friend," the tall figure said, "how have you been? Found yourself well?" The stooped one let out a wheezing laugh.  
"I found something, not myself, but I am well, so I shall answer positively. For which of us could be negative at such a critical point as this?" It took its clawed hand from beneath its strange robe. The humanoid sucked in his breath as he saw what it held.  
"So. There it is."  
"Yes. There it is." The wizened creature seemed delighted with his joke, and the humanoid realized the humor in it as well, but did not laugh.   
"Shall we use it to destroy?"  
"Yes. But we will also use it to create. That's what it was made for, you know."  
"It was made to be used, nothing else." The tall figure straightened to his full height and went back to contemplating the nothingness outside. "I think it will serve us just fine. As will the other you found. Is she suitable?"  
"Yesss..." the stooped figure hissed. "She will do nicely. One who could possess it must have the power we seek. But she will not be easy to turn. She has a new friend." The tall figure whirled.   
"Not..."  
"I am afraid so. But it is perhaps not as bad as we might believe it to be. He is not a real Jedi, he only knows what was taught to him by a rouge. He never attended the academy. Perhaps..."  
"...he could be used to turn her," the tall figure finished. "Yes. It would be easier if someone close to her guided her to us.... Can it be done?"  
"It will be done. I have already set into motion the events that will turn them both. We need the third."  
"Yes." The tall figure smiled, once again turning to the darkness of space and his personal contemplations. "The third."  
The small freighter that had docked within the large destroyer swept out of the launch bay as the tall figure watched it jump to lightspeed. Then he relaxed his grip on the galaxy, and the manacing ship disappeared as though it had never existed at all.  
  
Kira sat at the public access computer terminal booth and rubbed her temple trying to remember what it was she was looking for. It was getting harder to remember anything with this pounding pain in her head, which had only gotten worse since their departure from Nal Hutta. Thinking about the dark world, Kira patted the reassuring bulge in her jacket and then the other bulge in her outfit. The lightsaber still made her nervous, but she was not about to part with it after what she had paid. Though young, she knew more than a normal human girl her age did. She sometimes wished it could be different. If she were a normal 18 year old, she would be attending school on Corellia, more worried about boys than how to increase the output on that vaporizer. As it was, she had never even thought about a member of the opposite sex until now, and it's not like she had any illusions of a normal life. She had long ago resigned herself to growing up alone, except for her ship and her droids, which seemed perfectly reasonable to her teenaged mind. But now, it felt like there was a hole in her that she couldn't fill with tinkering and rewiring like she had done before. She didn't have a family, no matter haw hard she had searched for one. And since meeting Val, she had all but given up the search for her birth parents. "Val," she murmered to herself. Now she remembered. She didn't like to admit it, but her curiosity had gotten the better of her. She sat up to the console and typed in the command 'search: jedi+deluman'. The console blinked. 'Returns one result. Would you like to view now or download?' Kira considered reading the article right away, but decided a rest was in order before too much longer. After downloading the file, she stuck the disc into a pocket and stood up. Her head threatened to come apart at the seams, and she sat back down heavily.   
"Hey, you almost done in there?" a voice demanded from the other side of the transparent door. "Other people have to use the terminal too, you know." Kira stood up more slowly and forced a patient smile.  
"I'm done, it's all yours."   
"Are you okay?" the human waiting for the booth asked, his manner softening when he saw her face. "You don't look so good."  
"Thanks but I'll be fine, I just need to get back to my ship," she stumbled as she exited the booth, and the man caught her. She shook her head, "I don't know what...." Her eyes squeezed shut and she gasped as her body stiffened. Darkness.....and pain.  
The shocked man cried out. "Hey, are you okay?" He grabbed a passerby and directed them to call an emergency medlift, then turned his head back to the girl cradled in his arms. The man loosened the collar of her jumpsuit and his breath caught in his throat at what he saw. 


	3. Chapter three

The pain in her head immense, Kira opened her eyes to find a somewhat unfamiliar, yet striking face staring at her in concern. She jerked away from the stranger and sat up in the large bed, her eyes darting around the fine suroundings of an immense bedroom. "Who..." The man smiled, relieved.   
"It's okay, you're not in any danger. You collapsed at the terminal and I had you brought here, to my home. I apologize for trying to hurry you earlier, I myself was in a bit of a hurry and forgot my manners." Kira relaxed a bit as she took in the stranger's appearance. His short, almost pure white hair stood up in a messy way that looked perfectly planned. The color of his hair was striking against the youthful look of his face, which Kira, who would never associate beauty with males, could only describe as beautiful. His bright green eyes looked at her in concern as she stared at him, and then he laughed. "I'm sorry, I haven't introduced myself. My name is Hitori. I'm afraid I'm at a bit of a loss as to who you are..."  
Kira looked around, ignoring his questioning look. "Where are we?" The man frowned a bit, but ignored the brush off.  
"We are at my apartment. It was closer to the terminal building than a medfacility, and my personal physician was on call." Kira's estimate of the man went higher. A flesh and blood doctor was hard enough to come by, but to have one on your personal staff was almost unthinkable. She looked at the man again.   
"Well, thanks for your help, but I've got to...." her voice trailed away as she tried to climb out of the bed. She stopped and clutched her hand to her head, momentarily shaken. Hitori held up a hand to steady her.  
"Perhaps it would be better if you rested some more, you were in quite a bit of pain for a while there. I've already cleared my schedule for the day, if there's anything I can do for you, anyone you'd like me to call....?"   
Kira looked at him suspiciously. "Not that I'm not grateful, but why are you being so nice to a complete stranger?"  
The man rocked back onto his heels. "Actually, I was hoping you could tell me something." Kira looked at him confused. What could she possible know that would be of interest to this man? He reached towards the open collar of her jumpsuit and Kira jerked away from his touch. He ignored her embarassment. "What is that symbol?" Kira scowled at the man's forwardness as she secured the collar of her flightsuit.   
"I've had it since I can remember," she muttered, "I don't know what it means." She swung her booted feet over the side of the bed and stood up shakily. Hitori put an arm around her waist to steady her and she blushed furiously, mentally chiding herself for being so flustered. "If you've got a comm I could use, I'll be out of your way."  
He smiled. "Of course. There's one over by the window." He gestured towards the large floor to ceiling window as he walked towards the door. "Just hit the signal button by the door here if you need anything." With one last rakish smile, he swept out of the room.   
"Just who does he think he is?" Kira growled. She walked slowly to the window, and picked up the comm, punching in the code to Val's commlink. Before she hit the last button, she remembered that she still didn't know exactly where she was. She paused, looking out the window, and was shocked to see how high up she was. Looking over the city, she saw the familair terminal building in the distance, and sighed.   
  
"What do you mean, you don't know whose apartment you're in?" Val demanded. Kira grimaced.   
"I only know that his name is Hitori. Look, could you just come pick me up? I could walk back to the spaceport, but it's a ways away, and.."  
Val cut her off. "No, you stay just where you are, I'll be right there." His voice took on a concerned edge. "I'm worried about you Kira."  
She smiled, "I'm touched, but it's really nothing. i just pushed myself too hard, that's all. I'll be fine. Just get your Jedi butt out here and pick me up."  
Kira gave him directions as good as she could just looking out the window, and hung up the comm. Turning away from the view, she was surprised to see Hitori entering carrying a large old fashioned book. A real book, hard copy, not on a datapad like most people were used to. He smiled at her. "Finish your call?" She nodded, looking at the out of place object he held in his hand. He motioned for her to sit in one of the highbacked chairs in front of the window, and settled himself in the chair opposite hers. Indicating the book her held in his hand, he spoke softly. "I have a fairly extensive library on the subjects of ancient Jedi myth and legend. Do you know of the Sith?" Kira's brow wrinkled.   
"I know that Darth Vader was supposedly the last Dark Lord of the Sith. But what does that have to do with me?"  
Hitori gestured towards her throat, and Kira instinctively touched the symbol etched there through the cloth of her flightsuit. "That symbol seemed familiar to me, and I remeber seeing it in this journal." He opened the ancient text, extending it towards her. She looked at the symbol sketched in the margins of the page, and drew in a sharp breath. It was an exact replica of her tattoo.   
"I always wondered about it. I guess I just picked it up at the orphanage." Hitori looked at her, his eyes wide.  
"You're an orphan?"   
Kira shrugged. "It's no big secret. I can't remember much before I was seven and in the orphanage on Corellia, and even those memories are hazy. The most I remember of my childhood was hanging out at the spaceport, where the pilots would let me watch them work on their ships and some even taught me how. When I was fourteen, I left the orphanage to work on a freighter crew until I earned enough to buy my own ship." Kira wondered why she was telling this man she had just met so much about herself. She wasn't one to open up to anyone, even Val. She looked into his gaze and quickly at the floor. "Things came to me fairly easily. I had my own transport business by the time I was seventeen, and now I carry well-paying beings around the galaxy in my personal ship. I guess I'm lucky, most orphans end up out on the streets once they turn fifteen." Hitori's scrutinous gaze turned into a gentle smile.   
"More likely skill than luck. You do seem to take to things quickly with little instruction. You'd have to, to be skilled enough to earn enough to buy a ship in less than three years." He flashed a row of shiny white teeth at her, which made her head spin, but not from the pain. "Which is why I'd like to ask you for a favor."  
Kira looked at him warily. "I suppose I do owe you for helping me out today."  
He smiled at her. "I would like you to stay at my home for a while." Kira started.   
"You want..." Her expression grew cold, and she stood up abruptly. "I think you've gotten the wrong impression of me." The look of alarm on Hitori's face was enough to make her pause.  
"No, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply..." At a loss for words, he stood up to face her and rolled up the sleeve of his expensive shirt, baring his forearm. Kira looked down and gasped. There, in the middle of his arm was a symbol almost exactly like her own. "I think we are meant to find one another. I would like you to stay as my guest for a while so I can research what exactly this means. If ever you want to leave, you are free to do so, but I only ask that you give me some time." He sighed. "I've spent my entire life looking for something that I couldn't start to understand. When I met you at that terminal, I felt like I was so close to what I've been searching for." Hitori looked at her. "And you've felt it too. You feel differently around me than you would anyone else, am I right?" Kira looked uncomfortably around the room.   
"I suppose. But my friend.."  
"Is welcome to stay as well. I want you to be comfortable here. My staff and resources would be at your disposal. Please say you'll stay and help me solve this mystery." Kira's common sense told her to walk out now, but it was as though every fiber in her being was wanting to stay. It felt right for some reason. It felt like the first time she met Val. Her mind flashed to that moment on Abregado Rae, her first time on the planet. She had been a scared teenager, cornered by a group of street toughs who thought she'd make an easy target. As the leader of the gang pinned her up against the dirty stone wall, a rock detatched itself from the broken walkway and flew into the tough's head. Annoyed, the gang turned to see a towering figure standing on the wall above them fingering a metal cylinder.   
"Five guys for one small girl? What kind of man need to do that," the figure growled, and launched himself at the first of the hoodlums. With cool efficiency, he dispatched the gang who then ran off holding various injuries. He had then held out a hand to her as she sat in a crumpled ball on the dirty ferocrete. They had been friends ever since, but she had never told Val as much as she had just told this stranger.   
"I'll be in town a week, but I can't promise anything after that." She managed a small smile. "My name is Kira." Hitori smiled.   
"That's all I want. If you..." He was cut off as the door burst open, and a tall figure wearing a dark cloak stalked into the room, trailing a protesting woman. The woman practically ran up to Hitori.  
"I'm sorry, your excellence, he was most insistant he see the girl now, I couldn't stop him." Hitori frowned, but waved her away.  
"It's fine, Anya, he's expected." He turned to the intruder whose expression looked somewhat relieved as he walked towards Kira. "You must be Kira's friend."  
Val turned a scathing gaze upon the human. "And you must be Hitori."  
"Val." Kira said softly, "he helped me." Val's expression softened a bit and he cleared his throat.   
"Um, yes, thank you for helping Kira." He turned back to his friend. "Are you ready to go?"  
Kira looked at Hitori, who waved her concern away. "We have plenty of time, go fill your friend in and please join me later. I'll hopefully have some news for both of you by then." Val looked questioningly at Kira, who grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the door.   
"We'll be back in a few hours, then." She paused as she shoved Val through the open doorway and turned back to a surprised Hitori. "Thank you."  
  
Val grumbled. "I thought you had left all of this nonsense about your past in the past."   
"I had, but I'm curious and I owe him at least this much for helping me out." Kira glanced around and spotting a comm booth, hurried over to it. She grabbed Val and pushed him inside, following him in and activating the privacy screen.   
"Kira, what the sith..."  
"I want to show you something." She reached for the clasp securing the neck of her form-fitting flight suit. Val blushed a furious crimson and grabbed her hand, stopping her.  
"Kira, you're still not feeling well, I think you need to get some rest." Kira jerked her hand out of his grasp and undid the neck of her outfit.  
"I'm perfectly fine, what are you thinking," she grumbled as she pulled down her collar. Val's embarrassed expression turned to one of shock as he looked at the symbol glowing on her neck.   
"What...why didn't you show me this before?"he demanded. He looked down at his wrist, to see that his symbol was also glowing faintly in the low light of the commbooth. "It's been like this since we landed. I thought..." he stopped and looked at her. "That man, Hitori. He has something to do with these?" Kira nodded.  
"I think so. He also has a symbol like ours, here," she said, indicating her forearm. "And he has books about them, at least mine. I think this is worth looking into." She looked up at him with pleading eyes.   
Val pursed his lips in thought. Looking into her eyes, he frowned. "You might find out some things you don't want to know."  
"If it'll help me find out who I am, then I want to know. You don't know what it's like, going through life with no real sense of idenity." Kira struggled with her next words. "I feel so lonely sometimes. Before I met you, I didn't have anyone. Normal girls have parents and friends and big brothers...." Val's expression softened as he gently wiped away the tear that had fallen down her cheek.  
"I'll be your big brother, little Jedi. At least until we find you one of your own."   
Something tugged at the edges of Kira's memory as Val pulled her towards him in the tight confines of the comm booth. Surprised, she tensed and lost the fleeting thought. He felt so warm. She leaned into his chest, blocking out all other sensations except the sound of his beating heart.  
  
Val and Kira arrived back at Hitori's estate and were shown into an immense library to wait. Looking around her, Kira took in all of the hardcopy books. "Wow. I've hardly seen this many books in my lifetime, let alone all in one place. I wonder what they're all about?" Val shrugged as he surveyed the room. Sensing something strange, Kira glanced behind her, but only saw more rows of books. She walked over to a section of particularily old texts and let her hand trace along the spines, barely touching them. As her hand passed over one book, a cold shiver went through her body. She paused, and pulled the book off the shelf. Opening it up, she scanned the first page, but saw that it was in a language unknown to her. "Hey Val," she called, "Do you speak whatever-ian?" Her friend came over and reached out gingerly to take the book from her hands, but as he touched the book a cold pain shot up his arm. Jerking his hand back, he swore.  
"Sith, Kira, what was that?"   
"What was what?" She looked in puzzlement at the book she held in her hands. "It's a book, Val, it's not gonna bite you." He scowled and leaned over, looking at the printing on the pages.   
"I don't recognize the writing. Maybe you shouldn't touch any of the books in here, they make me feel...." He trailed off.  
Kira sniggered. "Scared of a book, huh?" She opened the book up to it's middle and feigned biting him with it. "Look out Val, its teeth are real sharp.." Opening the book wide, she advanced with it towards her friend. "This big scary book..." As she extended it, the book began to glow and when it came within a few feet of him, emitted a blinding beam of blue light that seemed to impale him. Unable to move, Kira flashed to her dream and the red lightsaber that had sunk itself into her abdomen. A wave of depair threatened to lift her of of her feet, and then another wave buffeted her, this time of anger at what had just happened to her friend. Hearing a shouted curse that seemed strangely distant, Kira tried to let go of the book and realized she no longer held it. The energy that had just killed Val was eminating not from a book, but from her hands. Suddenly, the light disappeared, and she found herself on the floor, looking up into the concerned face of her friend.   
"Kira, are you okay? You shouted my name, and by the time I got over here, you had collapsed." He gestured to the open book lying on the floor. "You read something that upset you?" Kira looked into his eyes, tears streaming down her face, and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Kira!" he exclaimed, "What happened? You're worrying me..."  
"I think she had a vision." Hitori walked quickly into the library, his expression one of concern. "I felt her anguish." He gingerly picked up the dropped book and placed it back on its shelf. "Ancient sith texts have been known to do that to members of the Ryoku." Totally at a loss and unable to calm the sobbing Kira, Val could only look up at Hitori questioningly.   
"You felt..? Sith texts...? Ryoku...?" Val massaged his temple with his free hand. "Way too much to proccess."  
Hitori ignored this and crouched beside the pair, placing his hand on Kira's head. "Be calm. The anger you felt was not your own." His soothing voice seemed to comfort her and she stopped crying. Her eyes drifted shut and she relaxed into Val's arms.  
"What in the name of the Force did you do to her?" Val demanded angrily as he tried to revive his friend.  
"I calmed her. She has had a long day, perhaps it would be best if she rested for the night. We can put this off until morning." Hitori smiled at Kira's sleeping face. "If you'll let me take her..."  
"That's okay, I've got her," Val quickly stood up, holding the small girl in his arms, blocking the man from taking her. "Just take me to her room."  
  
Opening her eyes, Kira stared at the ceiling for a moment, trying to remember where she was. That was right, she and Val were at Hitori's but....how did she end up in bed? A sleepy voice made her raise her head. "I see you've finally woken up." Val was reclined in a chair sat next to her bed. Sarcasm seeped into his voice. "The prince offered me a room, but I decided I'd feel better if I could keep an eye on you." His smile formed into a look of concern. "Are you all right?" Kira's heart skipped a beat as she remembered her disturbing vision, and she sat bolt upright in bed. The sheet fell from her shoulders, exposing her half nude form to the room. Both Val and Kira flushed and turned away, Kira covering herself with the sheet. "I didn't see..."   
Kira flushed harder. "What the heck happened to my clothes?" Val found a spot on the carpet and proceeded to study it with great interest.   
"Hitori's house girl undressed you and put you to bed after you fell asleep last night." He cleared his throat. "I'll go so you can get dressed, Hitori wants us to meet him in the library after you're ready." With that he strode out the door without a backwards glance. Kira scowled at his retreating form and looked around the room for her clothes. Draped across one of the tall backed chairs by the window was a long flowing gown. Frowning even harder, she walked over to the elegant creation and pulled up a corner of it, looking underneath for her flightsuit. Not finding it there, she contemplated the dress with disgust.   
"He has got to be kidding."  
Walking towards the library at brisk pace, Kira silently fumed at the indignity of it. The dress clung tightly to her chest and flowed down around her pumping legs like a silk waterfall. Even worse, it did nothing to cover up the brightly glowing symbol tattooed into her collarbone, which drew whispers from the staff she encountered on her way. Stalking into the room, Kira ran head on into Hitori and, unable to prevent a collision due to her legs being tangled in the dress' many layers, lost her balance. Hitori grabbed her waist and steaded her as she blushed a deep red. He grinned disarmingly. "You look lovely this morning Kira." A loud coughing sound turned her attention to Val who stood in the middle of the room scowling at the small drama unfolding before him. Disentangling herself from Hitori, she stood up straight.  
"Where," she demanded in a cool tone, "are my clothes?"  
  
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You likey? If you want more, please give me a review saying so! If no one likes my story, I'm afraid the rest will probably end up sitting alone in the memory of my computer for all eternity...*sighs as she looks off into the distance.* But anywho, tell me what you think! Like parts of it, but aren't into the sappy stuff? Love the sappy stuff and want more? Let me know! *winks* 


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